The most famous storm in the solar system is a top predator.
Jupiter’s Big red dot a new study has suggested numerous smaller storms that have recently wandered around his neighborhood and possibly even gotten food from these meals.
Astronomers have been observing the Great Red Spot continuously since the late 19th century. The storm has shrunk significantly during that stretch, which goes from 40,000 miles wide in the 1870s to today about 16,000 miles wide. (For perspective: the earth is a little over 7,900 miles, or 12,700 km).
Related: Jupiter’s Big Red Spot on Photos
Astronomers do not know why the Great Red Spot is getting smaller. Some have speculated that collisions with smaller storms, which have increased in recent years, may play a role. The new study examined the hypothesis.
Researchers led by Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, a professor of applied physics at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, studied images of the Great Red Spot captured by NASA between 2018 and 2020. Hubble Space Telescope, the space agency’s Jupiter orbit Juno spacecraft and amateur astronomers here on earth.
The team has identified numerous encounters between the Great Red Spot and smaller anticyclones. (Anticyclones swirl around central atmospheres at high atmospheric pressure, while cyclones like the earth’s hurricanes revolve around regions of low pressure.) These atmospheric collapses are torn away at the Great Red Spot, flaking pieces of cloud around the edges of the great storm.
The team said the diameter of the Big Red Spot shrank as it engulfed these smaller storms. But these changes were probably only skin deep, and did not affect the full depth of the GRS [Great Red Spot], “Sánchez-Lavega and his colleagues wrote in the new study, which was published online Wednesday (March 17) in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
“The interactions are not necessarily destructive, but can transfer energy to the GRS, maintain it in a stable state and guarantee its long life,” they added.
“This group did an extremely careful, very thorough job,” said Timothy Dowling, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Louisville who was not involved in the new study. said in a statement.
The exfoliation of Great Red Spot material is probably just a superficial phenomenon, leaving the depths of the storm, which stretches 200 km (200 km) under Jupiter’s cloud trees, largely untouched, Dowling added.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.